Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-12-08
CUSTOM SOLICITORS.
"PULLERS IN" OF THE METROPO-
LIS APPRECiATNELY DEncRleED.

Noted Members of the Profession and
Specimens of Their Persuasive OrGtory.
The Aristocratic pure Silk" Umbrella
Man-3nIIiners on the Sidewalk.
The ''puIler in occupies an humble but
important place in the economy of the retail
business in New York At least it is pre-
sumable that his place is important, or there
would not be so many of him The hurrying
crowd may not notice him. There may not
be one in the hundreds OF thousands who pass
him daily who is aware of his existence. His
eloquent appeals on the subject of new hats
and fine coats may fall on needless ears. He
keeps on with patient persistence which is
almost pathetic.
There is a middle aged man with melan-
choly face, about the color of q strawberry,
and voice of doleful pitch, who is pulling
in" for mems furnishing store on Fulton
street. He walks up and down short beat
in front of the store and talks incesSantly.
Nobody listens to what he says as far as you
can judge. He might as well be addressing
the crowd in Greek. If you were to go close
enough to him, however, you woul: hear him
saying: Pure silk, pure silk, only dollar
n a half for pure silk umbrella There is
an indescrbable touch of pathos about the
way he says this, as though the sacrifice of
''pure silk" umbrella for $1.50 were too much
for human contemplation He is the aristo-
crat of the "pullers i'm New York has
many of his profession, but none that equals
him.
The man who stands at the other end of
the profession haunts Baxter street.
''Now, shents. deed yer want ter buy dice
bair of bads odly dollar ad a hallaf7"
There are no melancholy notes in his nasal
tone. There are no evidences of piquant
anguish at the sacrifice he is making for the
good of mankind. He sticks his face down
to about the level of your scarf pin, and voci-
ferates his appeal with an energy born of
lifelong and bitter competition with the half
hundred others of his profession on the same
block. He walks not up and down with the
lordly mien of him who has reached the high
est station in ''puller i'm life He stands in
front of his dingy shop, attacks every passer-
by indiscriminately, and with startling vehe-
mence. His characteristic gesture is made
in one way, and has been made in one way
since the days of Abraham
Between these two extremes the ''puller inn
has many phases. There is the leather Iunged
young person, who stands on Fourteenth
street and advises everybody within three
blocks to ''git yer writin' paper an enveTps
cheap up stairs" with q tremendous empha-
sis on the git" dying away into q curious
little impotent squeak on the STAIRS There
is the thin, stoop shouldered person, with two
fingers on his right hand, who makes this re-
mark at regular intervals: "Don't have to
use knife to sharpen leadpencils" He is
"pulling in" for stand where q patent PEN
Gil sharpener is sold, though it takes good
deal Of patient investigation and skirmish-
ing around in the neighborhood to discover
the fact. Then there is a consumptive look
ing man, who stands on horse block in
front Of Park row hat store and implores
passersby in husky whisper to "buy their
hats and caps Of the manufacturer" There
is the fat man. who points you silently into
cigar store on Canal street. There is the
youth prolific of hair and dirty Of face, who
tries to lure the frugal housewives of Cherry
hill into a grocery store full of last weeks
vegetables. There is the well dressed and in
sinuating young man who "pulls inn at the
clubs and hotels for the tailor. And there
arc 'the ladies'"
For. the pulling in" profession has both
sexes and all ages, conditions and voices for
its own. 1t is in the region of Division street
sixteen millinery stores on that ancient
thoroughfare know her well. She lies in
wait in front of each of them for unwary
womankind. She is as energetic as her broth
ers in the profession, and far more voluble.
Strife runs high, too, between her and her
neighbor. A good "puller in" is worth 81 a
week in Division street. 1t is one of the dear
est objects of the designing ladies who minis
ter to the wants of their sex there to get
sidewalk operator who will bring her bust
ness, more especially if she can get the coveted
customer away from hated rival.
Two of Division streets fair milliners came
to blows the other day about the possession
of the best ''puller in" in the street. The
modern Solomon, who presided over the
police court in which the somewhat damaged
modistes figured after this interesting event,
was equal to the emergency. He proposed
that since the claims of each belligerent
seemed about equal, the peerless manipulation
of business who was the source Of all the
trouble should ''pull in" one day for one of
the milliners and the next day for the other.
This settlement was thankfully received by
the excited contestants and peace reigned
once more in Division street.
Space is lacking for the full description of
the fat lady, apparently speechless, who sits
all day in an ample arm chair in front of
Park row clothing store. Her place in the
profession of pulling in" can never be as
certained, for no one has ever seen her do
anything but sit still and look solemn.
Neither can justice be done to the silent
and clean shaven man who operates the patent
gate in front Of a hardware store on Barclay
street; to the determined race of "pullers in"
who burden the life of women visitors to the
markets; to the street car conductors who
turn to pulling in" in the vicinity of the big
dry goods stores; nor to the man who stands
in front of the sub-cellar shoe store on Beck
man street and tries to charm people into his
place with smile as broad and vacant as a
ten acre lot.-"C E. R" in New York Com
mercial Advertiser.